the vote began just minutes ago there in the house. whether or not to support senator reid's, leader reid's bill that is being debated in the senate right now. you can see the numbers there. the democratic yays at 115, the nays at 125. the number that is needed in the yay come is over 2/3 of the number of representatives in the house. that's over 260 that will be

needed. that will not happen. this largely seen as a symbolic vote. that just started to happen about five or ten minutes ago. we are watching that. the other big story is happening in the senate. there as they are debating harry reid's bill. leader reid's bill again also seen as perhaps getting some sort of compromise before moving forward. the third big thing we are watching at the daughter is in about 30 minutes, we expect to hear from leader mcconnell from the senate as well as speaker boehner from the house. they are having a briefing at 3:30 eastern time. we'll be here to watch that, too. a lot happening right now in washington, d.c. let's get right to the very latest in washington where all that's happening. house members are voting at the moment. luke russert is live at the hill with the latest for us. >> reporter: richard, how are you doing? what you're seeing is on the house floor. largely a symbolic vote. it was brought under suspension which is a parliamentary tactic

which the essentially 2/3 of the house have to vote yea for this to move on. it is expected to go down and go closely along partisan line with every republican voting against it. most democrats switched over. going forward as of right now, we expect to hear from speaker boehner and leader mcconnell at 3:30. expect that to be a double down on the current gop policy, which is saying the president is not leading. we do not know whether he would sign it into law. we need to come up with some compromise, some proposal. the house acted in a compromise way. one talking points repeated over and over again is the boehner proposal was bipartisan. harry reid disputed that. the boehner proposal is far from bipartisan because of additions made to it at the behest of the tea party freshmen, i.e. the

budget balance amendment. at 3:30 you'll probably hear more from democrats. they have a press conference this afternoon, as well. the main story is we are here against the clock. there is no clear path forward. negotiations are supposedly ongoing with harry reid trying to get republican senators onboard. even in a perfect world, if everythi everything, even if is there a compromise tonight, you have that deadline tuesday. we are literally in the same position today we were in earlier this week. >> people don't want to hear that. what about this letter that came out where 43 gop senators signed it but four did not? what's your thought on that? does that show perhaps some compromise is afoot right now in the senate? >> it's interesting three senate republicans said they would not accept leader reid's proposal in

its current form. scott brown in massachusetts, susan collins and olympia snowe from maine and lisa murkowski from alaska. senator reid has four republicans willing to negotiate right now. add that to the 53 democrats and independents. essentially reid would have to convince three more republicans to come forward just to get close to being able to debate on this bill and ultimately pass it. that all being said, there is no guarantee once, if reid were able to get three more republicans it would pass the house of representatives. if you got any democrat onboard, there is no guarantee that would happen with how vehemently those on the right of the republican party have been opposed to this

reid plan. reid is trying to get more than just 60 votes. he wants to try to get eight, ten, 12 republicans to garner more in the house. nevertheless, it is a very difficult process. >> you alluded to this earlier, this 3:30 briefing we are watching. is it expected to be more hard talk or are you hearing from any one of your sources we might hear something different? >> we expect it to be hard talk. the gop position has been all along is where is the leadership? harry reid is not leading? president obama is not leading? the reid bill is dead in the house. the boehner bill died in the senate. they will make a plea saying we don't know what the president wants to sign. one gop told me congress is motionless right now. the president just announced through his office of management and budget he would be willing

to sign the reid bill. it is more jockeying for position. you expect the democratic response saying the republicans are not working. they are out of touch. they are not willing to budge off their position. as this goes on and goes on, you're going to see a backlash in the country just looking at d.c. and saying, okay, we have this economy, as you heard senator udall say is quite fragile. we are playing these partisan games with it. >> luke, stand by one second here. we've got mike viqueira at the white house with news for us. >> reporter: a little bit of news here. our crack producer on the senate side reporting to me in an e-mail a moment ago harry reid on his way to the white house. if that turns out to be true, we have no reason to believe it is not, it would be significant. if you go back seven days ago today, there was similar talks going on behind closed doors. as luke has been pointing out to

you now, all the focus is on the senate after all the drama we've seen over the course of the last week and all the drama we saw yesterday on the house floor. the focus is on the senate. can harry reid with his plan change it to the satisfaction of enough republicans to come onboard making it a bipartisan bill? making it something that can pass the senate then therefore, put tremendous pressure on the house. harry reid is speaking live right now. is that the floor of the senate, nick? >> let's listen to harry reid. >> telling them continue to work each day. working each day is defending this country, wearing the uniform, listening to bombs go off around them. that's why today we have with us what is referred to by you press folks as real people. i guess we're not.

we have students like laura and sydney. veterans like bill, roger and carlos, marianna who is a senior, tulio is a senior. they're here representing the millions of people around this country who are as afraid as the soldiers on the front lines in afghanistan. we don't have time for more delaying tactics. we need to get to the business at hand. we have a message we can send back to the house very quickly. that's why we got rid of -- sorry, that's why we did the message so quickly last night. we wanted to get to what we are trying to do today. that is solve this problem we have. we can't do this alone. we need republicans to join with

us. we hope before midnight approaches that they will come us to and we will have worked during the day to say thank you. it was a good idea. but i haven't heard anything from the republican leaders. i hope he knows his troops are concerned. we know that. all of us know that. we talked to republicans. we have a proposal that is a proposal that the president will sign. it takes into consideration many of the objectives republicans had. there are no revenues. there are cuts. it lowers the debt by $2.4 trillion, allows us to increase the debt by $2.5 trillion. it's a fair piece of legislation. if they think it can be improved, let them tell us how they think it can be improved. they have until midnight tonight to do that. thank you.

[ question inaudible ] >> i have a little trouble understanding that myself. why we have for days received no responses from the republicans. why they have not been willing to work with us on what most of us feel they've gotten a lot that they wanted. as i indicated yesterday, i said today, fred thompson said take your chips and go home. you've won. >> tell us about the meeting at the white house. >> i don't know. don't know. i didn't schedule it. i got a note as i came in here to be down there at 3:30. [ question inaudible ]

>> let's take those one at a time. balanced budget amendment, that is one thing senator mcconnell and i talked about lots of times. we have no problem with a balanced budget amendment. we have one on our side that senator mark udall worked very hard to prepare. it's ready to go. we have no problem with that. they want a balanced budget vote, we want to have one. it's odd to me, however, that for something as important as this an effort to get the bare majority they got in the house yesterday, they put in their bill that you have to actually pass a constitutional amendment before they will allow the debt to be increased. that's a little extreme, i think. we are happy to have a vote on balanced budget amendments.

we had them before. there are two wars this administration didn't start either one of them. we don't need to go into the wars. i haven't been a fan of the iraq war, as everyone knows. that war cost us almost $2 trillion. the afghanistan war, the iraq war are winding down. the office of management budget, congressional budget said if you take $1 trillion it will lower the debt by $1 trillion and allow us to take an additional $200 billion in interest savings, that's what we have in our bill. it's all been done by the nonpartisan congressional budget office. i can't imagine the fact they have voted for, let's see, 230 republicans voted for that in the so-called budget.

40 republicans voted for it. why is it suddenly something they don't want? anyway -- [ question inaudible ] >> your math is terrific. can we get those four is 57 and we've got three more. we get 60. the issue has been now for a week or so a trigger. if the joint committee doesn't come up with a result, what should happen? we've been willing to say that we're happy if we don't arrive at the budget goals with the joint committee that certain things should happen. we've been willing to say there

could be a seqestration as long as this includes revenues. we have billionaires and millionaires and corporate jets and yachts and all this stuff that should be fair. the american people agree with us. they agree with us. the polls, democrats and republicans, independents all agree that there should be shared sacrifice. that's our bill called the shared sacrifice bill. that was the vehicle we moved. we are happy to have a trigger. they cannot keep turning their head away from the american people who say there should be shared sacrifice. this will be the last question. >> senator mcconnell -- [ inaudible ] >> in colloquy i had with senator mcconnell on the floor today, he's got to get this straight in his own mind. he complained he was called to the white house last saturday and told the president i don't want to be here. let's work this out by

ourselves. today he changed his mind. he wants the president involved. the president has been involved. he told us and i said this on the floor. with the republican democrat leaders in the cabinet room of the white house, he had been there a long time. he said, i have spent more time, i'm paraphrasing way said -- i have spent more time dealing with this raising the debt ceiling than all the other presidents combined. he has put in the time. ronald reagan had the debt increased during his eight careers as president, 18 times. he didn't spend ten minutes with members of the congress getting the debt ceiling raised. it's only become an issue with his tea party-driven republican congress. >> does that mean the president does not need to be at the table? >> senator mcconnell said he

wanted to be part. we'll see. he can't have it both ways. the president has always been fully willing to be engaged. thanks. >> you see there. senate majority leader harry reid. this is a question time with real people. mike viqueira at the white house and luke russert with us on capitol hill. you were talking and mentioning how the senate majority leader will be meeting with the president. what is the latest on that? >> real people as opposed to cyborgs. let's go right to the headline out of that, what we were reporting earlier. harry reid confirming he will be down this way, down the avenue, pennsylvania avenue, to confer with the president. why is this significant? flash back one week ago. there were similar behind-the-scenes talks going on

between michigan mcconnell, john boehner and harry reid. republicans tell us they are still on this. they have not backed down. harry reid had a deal pencilled in with mitch mcconnell and john boehner. nancy pelosi being on the periphery has been described for most of that deal. pelosi and reid came to the white house, took it to the president. the narrative from republicans go the president said, no, harry, that's not good enough. republicans claim they moved the goal post yet again and pulled the rug out from under a deal. here comes harry reid again. we don't know why he is coming down here. what we do know is that these talks behind closed doors have been going on at a frenetic pace throughout the course of the day. harry reid needs seven republicans in the senate, the more the better for their purposes, to come onboard. there is a critical test vote tonight at 1:00 on sunday morning, we should say. that could all slip and slide. i don't want to get too far into procedure here. what they are having to do and the key to all of this now is

senate republicans, whether there is another tentative deal on the table. whether there is something that the majority leader wants to run by the president or vice versa. shouldn't speculate about that. >> certainly not at this hour. listening to reid, there was development on the house floor with that vote. >> yes. the house officially voted down leader reid's proposal to raise the debt limit. i didn't see the number there. the fact of the matter is it is largely symbolic taken by john boehner and eric can't why are to show the reid bill could not pass through the house of representatives. it really brings us even closer to crunch time, if you will. essentially because we now know the boehner bill passed out of the house yesterday died in the senate. the reid bill had not been altered but died in the house. it gives a real sense of panic

at this meeting reid will have with president obama at the white house. perhaps reid is now getting the go ahead to present something else to mitch mcconnell or harry reid symbolically asking where does the president stand on this? he can say i went down to the white house and here is what he will do. take it or leave it. the house is doubled down on what they passed out last night. this is their extension of debt limit tied directly to a balanced budget amendment that has no possibility of passing the united states senate. would be vetoed by president obama. we are still very much in a holding pattern, richard. the house is content to wait on the senate now. everybody said we are motionless until president obama tells us what he would sign into law. that's been their talking point. harry reid is going to the white house. perhaps they could present something that would be signed into law. a very long way to go.

>> viq, you want to jump in. >> we are told by sources on the democratic side at the capitol, nancy pelosi is also going to be here. if there is going to be a deal that emerges over the course of this weekend, ultimately something would have to be sent back to the house of representatives. if you look at it without getting into too much of the back and forth and the washington wonky stuff, they need house democrats to pass it. whatever comes back out of the senate is not likely to gather -- let's put it this way. it's likely to get significant republican opposition within the house of representatives. especially illustrated by all the cmaneuvers harry reid had t go through. you've got to assume they are going to put up a united front

regardless of what is happening behind the scenes. republicans are going to try to make a virtue of necessity here, stand firm together, hold their cars until the last moment. na last moment is rushing up quickly. >> stand by. we'll take a little break. we'll right back. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas.

constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. our girl's an architect. our boy's a genius. we are awesome parents! biddly-boop. [ male announcer ] if you find a lower rate on a room you've booked, we won't just match it. we'll give you $50 towards your next trip. [ gnome ] it's go time.

two big events we are watching at this hour on msnbc. first on the left hand side at 3:30 p.m. eastern time, we expect to see leader pelosi and reid go to the white house to meet with president obama. also at 3:30 at the capitol, we expect to see there speaker

boehner. he will be speaking with leader mcconnell. those two events happening in the next five minutes. we'll be watching that on msnbc with you as that happens. mike viqueira is at the white house. luke russert is also here with me. he is at the capitol. luke, we were just listening to leader reid saying in his question time with normal people, real people, as he calls it. what he had said here was that he had no communication with the republican leader, leader mcconnell. is that really the factor some back channel discussions that are happening here? >> well, what the democrats say yesterday reid and mcconnell had good discussions. then mcconnell essentially broke them off and said -- around 6:00 p.m., that he would no longer negotiate with harry reid. mcconnell's folks said that was because it was clear whatever would come out of congress wasn't necessarily going to be signed by the president. they wanted the president's input on the discussions.

that's an interesting point. now the news that harry reid is going over to the white house where viq is and going to bring nancy pelosi, perhaps president obama is mentioning what he would be willing to give on them, any compromise, not only get any democrat in the senate but keep a sizable number of house democrats. what we've seen through the numbers game is house republicans are weary of supporting any debt limit extension that is not along their lines. you saw it took john boehner three days to get one of those. if a compromise goes over there and nancy pelosi's progressives don't like something given to senate republicans, she is going to need to held them. they can only get three republicans. who knows what that discussion is going to be. on a numbers game, that's where

they are. as of right now, there is no word mcconnell and reid have had direct negotiations nor back channel. albeit, there probably are some discussions we don't know about. they are secretive in washington. >> they like to keep it close to the vest. three minutes until we expect to hear from the republicans leaders. throw minutes from that meeting at the white house. viq, what do you think will happen here as the president brings the democratic leaders? is he reinjecting himself into the process? >> we know precious little and still less exactly how the president has been involved in the process. certainly, he's made some public appearances at key times. there was a speech on primetime that took a lot of people by surprise. to be followed by a similar address by the speaker of the house that was outside the usual state of the union, the paradigm we usually see in january. we saw the president appear yesterday after it had become clear after that balanced budget

amendment had been added to the house bill by john baoehner in all of those heat hectic efforts to save face and avoid everything from crashing and burning around him to preserve this strategy of jamming the president. the only viable option would be to sign this boehner bill. when they added that balanced budget amendment, let's face it. the debt ceiling couldn't be raised until the constitution had been amended by a vote of 2/3 of both houses of congress and 3/4 of the states. we can call that objectivity a stretch. the ball is in the senate's court. we have this critical test vote at 1:00 tonight that could be delayed. i don't want to confuse people. this is bewildering enough. what is happening behind closed doors is that harry reid, the senate democrat leader has to get at least seven.

there are 51 democrats, two independents who vote with democrats in the senate. get to 60 of the 100 senators. we don't know if he will lose any democrats. he's i got to deal with them. pick them off one by one ordeal with mitch mcconnell. the key is senator republicans and whether or not there is a deal on the table right now we don't know. last week when they were close to something, harry reid and nancy pelosi were sitting in the same west wing talking to the president. >> stand by. we'll try to get another break before we go to that live news briefing on capitol hill. can i have some ice cream, please ? no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i'm new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends.

at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. [ whistle ] with copd, i thought i might miss out on my favorite tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today i'm back with my favorite team. ask your doctor about symbicort.

i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. we are still watching two major events to happen at any moment right now. what we are hearing on capitol hill, we expect there to be a news briefing from the republican leaders. that's going to be speaker boehner, as well as leader mcconnell. that's happening at this moment, at any moment. there is also the meeting at the white house that we understand is going to happen with democratic leaders. we'll have leaders reid and pelosi there.

as we wait for those to happen, specifically the news briefing from republican leaders, crystal ball, a democratic strategist and joe watkins, a republican strategist. when we look at what's happening right now, there are four senators out there. we were talking about this earlier. as we look at a compromise, is leader reid going to the white house right now saying i've got at least four, four who did not sign that objection letter to the reid bill. i have four that might be in my pocket or open to being in my pocket. what do you think is going to be said regarding that? >> that is exactly right. reid knows he has a shot at those four. he knows what he needs to get way needs. he needs 60 votes, of course. republicans are saying, you know, the ball is in your court and president obama's court. if if the president will tell you what he is willing to sign

and you will move the chain a little bit more toward our side, if you agree to some provisions of mcconnell and some provisions of boehner, we might have a deal here. the ball is in your court, senator reid and president obama. you have to agree to what you will, what the president will sign. then come back to republicans and say, this is what we are willing to do. then you have a deal. >> an update. we heard mcconnell and boehner, their news conference will happen 3:45. what is your thought on that? >> senator reid has four votes from republicans. still not in up to get to 60. only the senate has drawn, it can be a short-term deal. we have to remove our aaa debt rating. right now the only difference,

substantive difference between the reid plan and original boehner plan which have similar cuts, the boehner plan is a short-term plan. it seeks to embarrass the president and put him on the hot seat before the 2012 elections. >> they are getting their house in order, that's all. >> the reid plan provides them to get past the 2012 elections and gives us a better chance preserving that aaa rating. that is the sticking point. i suspect the purpose of this meeting is two things. first to demonstrate yes the president is engaged. yes, he is well aware of what is going on and involved in these negotiations. senator reid probably does want to get a feel for what exactly, what room do i have to negotiate for the republicans? >> crystal, let me -- for the president to say he would sign harry reid's bill doesn't mean anything. it's already been rejected in the house. you have 43 republicans standing strong against it. >> you're right.

the question is where is the wiggle room from reid's proposal to get closer to boehner's proposal to a point where something could pass the house and a few republicans to get it over the line. speaker boehner cannot get something through the house with just his caucus that could pass the senate. >> joe, we look at the timing. doesn't appear to be coincidence both at 3:30. democrat leaders meeting with the president. republican lied are will have a news conference also at 3:30. is this huddling right now. is this going to be real work or posturing? >> this is real work. the clock is ticking. we don't have that long. senator reid is talking about republicans have until 1:00 this morning to get back to us. the clock is ticking. they are working hard right now. the ball is in the court of the president and senator reid. they've got to figure out how much they are willing to move toward republicans to get a deal

signed. to get enough republicans onboard to get a deal signed to have legislation the president will sign. >> speaking with one law maker earlier this afternoon who said, if i had to compromise as a senator, a democratic senator, if i had to compromise, i would allow traunches. >> democrats have come so far over to the republican side. they abandoned any possibility of having revenues as part of this deal. they submitted a dollar for dollar spending cuts with increase of the ceiling. they've come so far over to the other side. probably the last position that's going to move is having triggers, having perhaps a balanced budget amendment vote. that's the last place that we can go. honestly, this deal already moved so far to the republican side, i don't understand why they don't declare victory and move on. >> crystal, joe, stand by.

you'll be with us throughout this hour as we watch and wait for that news briefing to begin very shortly. congressman michael burgess republican of texas joins us from capitol hill. thank you for your time. we understand we will see republican leaders come to the microphones in about seven minutes. have you any insight in terms of what they are about to say? >> it certainly has all of the appearances of a classic impasse. for people who haven't been watching the united states congress since january, this is actually pretty typical for us. the house pass things, senate ignores it. that's where we've been this past two weeks. the only difference is now there is pretty heavy stuff riding in the balance. i don't know if either side has a rabbit they can pull out of the hat. i think listening to some of your commentary earlier, no, there is not revenue in this. the president got a $500 billion tax bill passed last year in the

affordable care act. i don't know the american people neat another whack at revenue. that's important having this come in installments. to have this in february does not concern me at all. have we gotten the cuts? do the cuts produce what they were advertised to do? i think that's what people need to see. whether you approach this in inall statements, we've got another crisis coming on september 30th when the appropriations here runs out. there will be another opportunity. this is not going to go away. this is something the president has to deal with until the 2012 elections. >> as we look and wait for this news briefing, the reason i asked if you had insight to what the speaker might be saying, you had actually asked for a personal meeting with speaker

boehner. you had that meeting with him privately. >> it was early thursday morning after our conference. i came to the conclusion about 3:00 in the morning thursday at my desk, although this was not the way i would have preferred for this story to unfold, what we had was the only viable path forward from where we were. to oppose him was to imperil the country. i got a lot of criticism at home and got a lot of support at home. it's certainly a mixed bag. my own decision was i wasn't willing to let the country be put at risk to get the perfect ideal which is cut cap-and-balance to get that offer from the house to the senate. i was willing to accept the compromises the speaker made and see if we could hold harry reid to his word. i didn't like the special commission part of this. i didn't like the fact there was no reduction in the affordable

care act in this. i was willing to accept those things and recognize -- who knows what august 2nd looks like or the day after august 2nd looks like? it's unchartered territory. i wasn't willing to gamble with the future of my country. >> congressman, thank you for your time. just about 20 minutes ago the house voted down reid's budget control act bill, 173-246. we are watching these microphones. every day, all around the world,

energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas.

3:44 in washington, d.c. on the left hand side we expect any moment right now to hear from speaker boehner and leader mcconnell as the republican leaders come to the microphones in a news briefing on this saturday. that should happen any moment. on the right-hand side, we understand there is a meeting going on right now in a very fluid situation in both places here.

a meeting between president obama and democratic leaders. that again, leader reid and pelosi. that is all happening. as we wait for that, i would like to bring in political scientist and presidential historian larry sabato. both calling meetings. seems like a huddle on both sides at 3:30 for the exact same time initially. what do you make of it? >> the deadline is tuesday. i don't mean to insult members of congress, but i said they are exactly like my stuns. i could give my students a semester to do an assignment and the majority would pull an all-neither hours before the assignment was do. the deadline is tuesday. they are still shadow boxing. there is still a lot of partisanship and posturing. these are leaders. they are legislative leaders, executive leaders. what they say in republic with the rhetoric and what they are doing privately could be two very different things.

>> what do we expect to be said openly, publically by the republican leaders in just a matter of moments? >> well, since they're just two republicans speaking, my guess would be they are going to present the republican position again. one would hope -- >> more posturing, is what you're saying? >> yeah. the rhetoric should be tamed because if you enflame people who have to vote for something in 48 hours, you're going to make that task much more difficult. we'll see how they handle it and whether their words are measured. >> let's go to the white house. that meeting is private. what does the president need to do at this moment as he deals with the democratic leaders moving forward to try to cobble together a compromise? >> one assumes senator reid is going to tell the president what he may have to swallow. it probably won't be pleasant, assuming a deal can be worked out. potentially, when this comes

back to the house, if it gets back to the house, speaker boehner may have to rely on dozens or hundreds of -- or more than 100 democrat votes to get this passed depending on what's in it. it may truly end up being bipartisan. no one will like it, but it will still be bipartisan. >> back to your analogy as professor. there is a certain point where it is just too late no matter what you stay up all night. are we past that point? >> we are not past that points. like the papers i grade it will be full of typographical errors. there may have to be make-up legislation later. it's certainly possible they will exceed the official deadline by a certain number of

hours or even days. somehow i suspect that the treasury has some wiggle room. probably our finances will hold for a couple of days beyond august 2nd, if needed. we hope it isn't needed, but it may be. >> one hopes there is wiggle room. thank you so much, larry, for your perspective on that. as we wait for republican leaders to come to the microphones, i would like to bring in democratic congressman kathy hokel from new york. we did not know what the agendas were going to be. what is your thought? >> my thought is that the democrats came far. let's say this is the football field, we have come way beyond the 50 yard line. the fact there is no closing of loopholes in this resolution and we came together to do what is right for this country, we should get more credit than we

are getting. democrats have gone as far as perhaps they will go. in the words of professor sabato, it is the morning after pulling the all-neither. every day, every minute that ticks that we don't have this resolved, we are injecting unsurpassed insecurity into the global markets, the american markets. it's wrong. in my judgment, i don't want to see this go longer. we've got to put an end to this right now. start acting line groek-ups. democrats need to compromise, republicans need to compromise and get the job done. >> larry was saying that you and others have not been doing your homework. you have waited until the last minute. how do you respond to that? >> as a new member, i've been in this position since june 1st and learning how this process goes. we are all guilty, but to the extent people walked away from the table, if you want to do a head count, republicans walked away far more times than democrats have. they left the gang of six, left

the president's negotiations. they are masters at getting up, taking their toys and going home. democrats demonstrated they are willing to be more responsible. what we just voted on minutes ago, there was not a not a single democrat who was happy about that. we said, you know what, this is america's future we're talking about here. we cannot say we're refuesing t pay our bills. we do what we had to save america, medicare and social security. those are priority i came to washington to protect, that's what we did with this vote. republicans got this at least halfway and seemed to be refusing to do so. >> congresswoman, as things go in washington, d.c., in the capitol, all around, we are hearing that the news briefing has been delayed. as such, we are going to take a break. thank you, congresswoman, for your time. i have copd. if you have it, you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like.

copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms... by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. breathing with copd is no small thing. ask your doctor about spiriva.

all right. 3:53 eastern time. there's washington, d.c., the news briefing that was supposed to happen at 3:30 has now been pushed back. we do not know what time speaker boehner and leader mcconnell will be coming to those microphones on the left-hand side. you see those u.s. flags there on the right-hand side. we understand the other big story this hour, president obama asking democratic leaders, leader reid and pelosi, to come to the white house. we don't know to speak what issue specifically. but it is assumed that it will be largely about the debt ceiling and the deals that are being bandied about there in washington, d.c. you're watching both of those. crystal ball has been watching, democratic strategist. joe watkins has been here over

the last hour, msnbc political analyst, as well as republican strategist -- >> if i were the republicans, i would want to wait to see what the president and senator reid and former speaker pelosi had to say. i wouldn't necessarily want to step right out and make my comments. you know what they're going to say, they're going to say the ball is in the court of the president and senator reid. we're waiting to hear from them. you might want to wait to hear from them. i'm not surprised at the delay. >> you think they pushed it back because they're going to wait to see what happens to the meeting in the white house, then they can make a statement and respond accordingly? >> i think so. that's what i would do from a tactical position. i would want to wait or at least get some feedback quietly as to what's happening in the meeting before i made my pronouncement. >> yeah. some of the headline here, have been warring weekend there in washington. and as you look at this pushing back of the news briefing, do you think that's also the case, what joe was mentioning there? >> i think that's a very real possibility.

they don't want to be stuck in a place where they come out, they make their remarks, and then seem to be totally off base with whatever comes out of the meeting with senator reed and nancy pelosi and the president. so i think that's certainly a possibility. that being said, i don't expect it hear much different when we do hear this press conference. i think it will be the same sort of talking points we've had over and over again about, you know, we passed this through the house, and we're willing to compromise, and the ball's in their court. and is the president and -- >> stand by, we see speaker boehner. >> bipartisan opposition to senator reid's proposal. the house yesterday sent our second bill to end this crisis to the senate. it's a reasonable, responsible approach that will end this crisis and get our economy moving again and get americans back to work. the only things standing in the way of the house proposal over

in the senate is the president and senator reid. it's time for them to tell us what they're for. time to tell us how they're going to get us out of the cul-de-sac that they've driven our country into. so we're hoping that we'll hear from them soon about their plan for how we end this crisis. >> i don't want to linger too long on the spectacle that's going on over in the senate, but it is worth noting that you have the majority in effect refusing to accept a vote on their own proposal. we know the reid proposal will not pass the senate. we know it will not pass the house. and my view is we ought to end that charade and get serious. now in the category of getting serious, i've spoken to both the president and the vice president within the last hour. we are now fully engaged. the speaker and i, with the one

person in america out of 307 million people who can sign a bill into law. i'm confident and optimistic that we're going to get an agreement in the very near future and tlofl crisis in the -- resolve this crisis in the very best interests of the american people. >> questions? >> mr. speaker, a question for you. the chairman of the joint chiefs is in afghanistan, and he was asked by a number of soldier whether they're going to get their checks next week. how can you even allow these soldiers to wonder whether they're going to get paid? >> i think senator mcconnell and i are both confident that we're going to be able to come to some agreement with the white house. >> delayed the vote for various reasons, did this buy time when we could have had this realistically worked out with a bipartisan agreement next door? >> we could have had this bill finished early this past week. there was a bipartisan agreement

between myself and the senate leaders to move the underlying bill that we moved through the house yesterday. and if the president -- all he had to do was say yes. that bill would have moved quickly through both the house and the senate. so we've wasted a week that we didn't need to waste. now we've been driven into this cul-de-sac. it's time for the president to decide how we're going to get out of it. [ all talking at once ] >> what gives you confidence you're going to get -- >> in spite of our differences, i think we're dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible. and i'm confident that we will. >> let me just add -- let me just add, our country is not going to default for the first time in history. that is not going to happen. we now have, i think, a level of seriou